CWP Wk 3

Are Markets Sexist?

First, we’re gonna talk about the gender-wage-gap, probably the most common example of sexism. All you have to do is look at how this “evidence” was collected to see that this is not in fact true. The numbers were calculated using median wages of men and women as a whole, with no categories for different professions. Of course we must also factor in that different careers and life choices appeal to men vs. women, so naturally one gender is bound to earn a higher wage than the other.

The second topic is the Pink Tax, which is where goods catered towards one sex or another are usually more expensive when meant for women. While I do actually think this is the case, there is a fairly simple argument to negate the issue. If women aren’t willing to pay for the female-oriented products, wouldn’t they just buy the male-oriented products instead? Once certain female-oriented companies (clothing for ex.) saw that they weren’t making any money, they would have to lower their prices to the same level as the male-oriented companies or risk going broke. But obviously women continue to pay for the more expensive products, which only encourages the companies to raise their prices and make the male/female cost difference more profound.

The third and final topic is the un-arguable sexualization of females in the entertainment industry. A great example is the movie Wonder Woman. Starring in the film, we see a strong, independent, brave woman…clad in armored lingerie. And yet even the wildest feminists paid to go see that movie, even with scantily-clad Wonder Woman in the trailer. As offensive as this type of portrayal of women is, if we objected that much, we would stop paying for the movies and the comics full of oversexualized women and the producers and writers would (as in the previous topic) either change, or go broke.